SHOT IN THE ARM

Scott Hamilton Kennedy (THE GARDEN, FOOD EVOLUTION) had begun investigating the global measles epidemic. It was long before anyone had heard of COVID-19. He was filming with top public health officials–including Tony Fauci–as well as rare interviews with anti-vaccine activists who were persuading parents by the millions to refuse vaccines for their children.

Then COVID-19 happened.

Acting quickly, Kennedy shifted his directorial eye to this once-in-a-century tragedy. Both skeptical and hopeful, SHOT IN THE ARM explores vaccine hesitancy historically and in the context of our modern pandemic. Can we replace cynicism with healthy curiosity and bridge the political divides that make us sick?

SHOT IN THE ARM is a film by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, Executive Produced by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

With panelists Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo (Director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown School of Public Health), Dr. Jennifer Galvin ’95 (Environmental Scientist and Documentary Filmmaker), and journalist Maggie Fox.

MOSSVILLE: WHEN GREAT TREES FALL

Mossville, Louisiana: A once-thriving community founded by formerly enslaved and free people of color, and an economically flourishing safe haven for generations of African American families. Today it’s a breeding ground for petrochemical plants and their toxic black clouds. Many residents are forced from their homes, and those that stay suffer from prolonged exposure to contamination and pollution. Amid this chaos and injustice stands one man who refuses to abandon his family’s land - and his community.

Mossville will be followed by a panel featuring Erica Walker, ScD, MS, the RGSS Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health. Dr. Walker runs Community Noise Lab at Brown University, who’s primary aim is to explore the relationship between community noise and health, holistically.

Also joining the panel will be Valerie Tutson, founding member and director of the Rhode Island Black Storytellers and FUNDA FEST: A Celebration of Black Storytelling. She graduated from Brown University with a self-designed major, Storytelling as a Communications Art, and a Masters in Theatre, and received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Rhode Island College. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Pell Award for Artistic Excellence from Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence.

ANONYMOUS SISTER

94 minutes / USA / 2023

When a young woman turns to the camera for refuge, she ends up with a firsthand account of what will become the deadliest man-made epidemic in United States history. Thirty years in the making, Anonymous Sister is Emmy Award®-winning director, Jamie Boyle’s chronicle of her family’s collision with the opioid epidemic.

There will be a reception at 5:30pm and a 6:00pm screening, followed by a panel and community discussion with Brown Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology Josiah “Jody” Rich,  MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology Dr. Alex Macmadu, and the film’s director Jamie Boyle.

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